Lithuanian beer, again

I've written before about how Lithuania has
a beer tradition of its own, different from any other country on
earth, but back then I didn't really know very much about it. I'm
still far from an expert on Lithuanian beer, but by now I've learned a
bit more, which I want to share. One reason is that I find that
although Lithuania is just a short (and cheap) plane ride away, people
don't seem to have any interest in exploring this world of beer
unknown to just about everyone.

Of course, Lithuania has industrial brewers like every other
country, turning out industrial pale lagers, Baltic porters, and all
that stuff. It also has some brewpubs producing beer of the same types
found everywhere else. Well, forget all that. There's nothing wrong
with it, but you don't need to go to Lithuania if you want a Baltic
porter.

Beer journalist Martin Thibault (known
as MartinT on
Ratebeer, and one of my sources of information) wrote that he's
gradually come to realize that the Lithuanian beer tradition is one of
the world's great beer traditions, alongside those of the UK, Germany,
Belgium etc. That's a pretty big claim, but I actually agree with
him. Of course, Lithuania is a much smaller country than Germany, with
only 3 million people, but they still do have a living, even vibrant,
beer tradition that they share with nobody else.

Unfiltered farmhouse ale

What we are talking about here is traditional home brew, the sort
of beer that people have been brewing at home for millennia. The
industrialization of beer killed this off most places in Europe,
except for the Nordic countries, and
Lithuania. So the type of beer traditionally brewed has somehow
survived here, and is now made commercially by a growing number of
small microbreweries.

Lithuanian home brewers have traditionally stored their yeast in
the well to keep it cool, sharing their yeast with one another when
needed. On his trip to
Lithuania, Martin
kept some of the yeast sludge from the bottom of a bottle, and
took it home to Montreal. There, friends at McGill University had it
sequenced, and compared the DNA with that of other yeast species in
the GenBank database. That database contains essentially all gene
sequences extracted by researchers all over the world for the last 20
years. The Lithuanian yeast did not match any other known yeast
species. In fact, it appears to be an entirely new species, hitherto
unknown to science.

Chew on that for a moment.

Senojo Vilniaus Alus

In other words, when Lithuanian brewers claim to be continuing an
ancient beer-brewing tradition unique to Lithuania, there is pretty
strong scientific evidence that they are speaking the truth. That is
quite something.

Of course, for someone who's actually tasted these beers, this is
interesting, but not really surprising. Lithuanian farmhouse ales, or
kaimiškas, don't really taste like any other kind of
beer. There's huge variation between the beers, rather like with
Belgian beers, but at the same time a clear family resemblance, again
like Belgian beers.

Most of these beers are unfiltered. Some are pale, and some are
dark. Strengths vary from about 5% to about 7%. An earthy, strawy
flavour appears in many of these beers, but nutty oily flavours are
there, too, and many spicy herbal tastes, too. There are a couple of
named styles, but most beers seem not to belong to any of them.

One example is "keptinis", meaning "baked" beer, so called because
the malt is baked into bread loaves, which are then used for mashing.
I'm told that today only the Čiżas
family makes real keptinis, but the Kupiškis brewery makes
a keptinis where they just bake some of the malt in an oven. (Much of
this information I got from the owner of the
site Tikras Alus.)

More kaimiškas

One of the more famous variations is beer that uses peas as part of
the grist (that is, as one of the fermentables). There is a long
historical tradition for this, but the style does not have a
recognized name. Michael
Jackson wrote
about this in 1995s, and today it is only brewed by
Birżu
alus. I tried it, but found it tasted like a fairly normal
German helles, with perhaps a little more flavour and depth than
usual.

There are also smoked beers, called duminis. Another variation is
to use red hot stones to boil the wort, causing caramelization, just
like with German steinbier, but apparently an independent tradition.
I also found
a
beer brewed with raspberry leaves.

However, the beers following the purity law are no less remarkable,
and very much worth a trip to Lithuania to sample. One beer I really
liked was Širvenos Dundulio Dounkelis Tamsusis (yeah, the names
are a bit of a challenge), a reddish brown rye beer from the
Širvenos brewery in northern Lithuania. It has a smoothly
dry-sweet with an amazingly vivid caramelly licorice flavour that
hides earthy spicy notes in the background.

After two trips to Lithuania I find I've now tried about 40
different farmhouse ales, and there are many, many more out there.
There are now at least six different bars in
Vilnius serving these beers, so finding them is not hard at all.
So, what are you waiting for?

Update: I've now made a third trip, where I visited five
breweries. Blog posts from that start here,
summary of what I learned here.

Interesting indeed. Do you know if this traditional beer culture also stretches to the neighboring countries Latvia and Belarus?

When it comes to the traditional Norwegian home brewing culture I think there is a lot of hidden knowledge, as you indicate, waiting to be discovered. It would be interesting if someone took the work to investigate the brewing traditions in the different parts of Norway. Different initiatives indicates that this culture is experiencing a revival, not at least the growing number of micro breweries.

In addition to micro breweries there are also other initiatives promoting traditional brewing. In Balestrand for instance, the owners of Ciderhuset (www.ciderhuset.no) have established a festival called 'Norsk drikke', and this year's theme was beer brewing. A workshop in beer brewing was held by the owner of Kinn brewery, Espen Lothe.

egle - 2012-11-21 05:59:25

nice, just one correction - in the first picture, there's not the cathedral - it's one of dozens of Vilnius' churches. the cathedral is much bigger, white and built is classical style ;)

Lars Marius - 2012-11-23 16:58:49

@Svein: The heartland of this tradition seems to be North Lithuania, which indicates that it might well exist in Latvia, too, but despite actively searching I've found no sign of it so far in Latvia. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist. If you'd tried to search in English for traditional Norwegian homebrew you'd have a very hard time of it, too, in spite of it being very much alive and kicking. So it's very possible that there is a tradition in the countryside that has not (yet) emerged into commercial brewing. I just don't know.

Belarus I know nothing about. I didn't even think about that as a possiblity, since it's ethnically very different (Russian/Slav, rather than Lithuanian/Baltic). Of course, people can learn from each other despite ethnic differences, so the possibility remains, but I know nothing about any connection.

As for Norwegian brewing culture, as you indicate, it is bound to become more prominent with time. The first commercial brewer of Stjørdalsøl has already started, and I bet other regions will be bound to follow.

Atis - 2012-11-24 15:59:37

@Lars, your are quite right about Latvia. There is a history of older style homebrewing in Latvia, but current brewers have not sticked to the roots to the same extent as Lithuanian brewers have, although technically it is the same region. I mean, using old recipes, keeping old strains of yeast alive. There are some old folks brewing beer in wooden vessels, but that is about it. It would be safe to assume that this tradition is almost dead in Latvia, although there are enough people who are interested in preserving some of it.

I discussed this with fellow Lithuanian homebrewers some time ago (I am a Latvian) and we had no idea why this divide exists.

Remigijus - 2012-11-26 08:35:18

Advice To Author:

Next time please try "Vasaknø Dvaro Ðviesusis", it is available on tap in "Alynas" pub on Jogailos street in Vilnius. Yammy taste

Lars Marius - 2012-11-26 14:48:41

@Atis: Thank you so much for this information. This is why blogs have comments. :-)

@rimvydas: You mean me? I do, name Lars Marius Garshol, but I only post private stuff there, no beer. I'm also on Twitter, as @larsga, if that helps.

The Dude - 2013-01-12 12:30:19

Nice article, man...

Evan - 2013-02-19 16:42:02

Going on rugby tour in May.many youngsters involved i.e 18/19 yrs. Would you adsvise them to stay away from the stronger(though more traditional) ales. Are there more commercial (weaker )beers available? Can foresee problems otherwise !!!

Lars Marius - 2013-02-20 02:28:23

@Evan: Most of Vilnius is dominated by beers that are much like those of any country in continental Europe: industrial pale lager in the 4-5% range. They have stronger beers too, of course, like the porters.

The traditional ales are only available in a few pubs, and in any case I assume the average British 18-year-old would find many of them tough going. The flavour is pretty unusual.

I wouldn't worry about it.

Donatas - 2013-10-02 07:27:19

Visit Klaipeda. SVYTURYS is the oldest operating brewery in Lithuania located in Klaipeda. It was established in 1784. Easy way to get from Vilnius airport to port city Klaipeda http://www.airport-bus.lt/

@Angelo: It's been a little up and down in my experience. When it's good it's a good example of Lithuanian sviesusis, when not good it's kind of boring. There are much better sviesusis beers out there. I hope this helps.

Interesting book, i am soon publishing "beer guide to Vietnam" which has a similar concept. Thanks to your book i am now on my way booking a trip to Lithiania. i will try visit at least a handfull breweries in the first day and 2-3 more before i return. It will be a short but intense trip.